Roses and Cellar Doors

Gus  seems to be a rather polarizing nickname: either you find it adorable, or you find it hopelessly dorky. In the US, it's usually sho...

Names ending in "oh" are trending pretty nicely right now, mostly for boys, but definitely a bit for girls as well. The boys' ...

Next stop (going in no particular order, BTW) is Italy, again focusing on names/forms that didn't survive to modern day. Here we go! (t...

I know, I know: how have I not done Finn  yet? It's trending in several countries across Europe, as well as in the US, Australia, & ...

The holidays are over; winter can be over now too, thanks. ;) I was thinking the other day about names with "flower" meanings, sp...

Considering how many F-names seem to be trending ( Finn  and variants, Flynn , Ford ,  Fisher , Fletcher ,  Felicity , Fiona, Freya ), I...

Recently I did a breakdown on which letters were "feminine" vs. "masculine", and there were a couple surprises. Specific...

I did "boyish" girl names, so now I have to do the reverse, of course! Boys have much more diversity when it comes to name endings...

Thanks at least partially to Latin, girls are seriously lacking in ending-letter diversity. Girls have the majority of -a, e, y, ah, and i, ...

Really? I haven't done Nora yet? Yikes, what an oversight! Nora  is currently quite a popular name on its own, all over the world, but ...

If you're anything like me, you consider Raymond a "grandpa name" (and I'm not trying to be mean; it is literally my grand...

Yes, yes, I know: Rory isn't a nickname; it's a full boys' name. But, thanks at least partially to Gilmore Girls , Rory is incre...

I know, it seems weird to group those together. But, Dolly & Dotty were nicknames for Dorothy thanks to that R-to-L/T/D shift that Middl...

Ben ! How have I forgotten good, dependable Ben for so long? Benjamin  is the usual choice, of course, and just as in style as ever. Bentley...

Despite the fact that Etta  rose higher than any of her long forms, I still think of her as a nickname. I'm not sure why--because -etta ...

What begins with A? Lots of smallish girls' names, and they also end that way: Abha  (ahb-hah, Hindi)--"light, luster" Ac...

I was surprised to find that Samuel  & Samantha are currently ranked #25 & 29 in the US (for boys & girls, respectively, of cour...

It occurred to me the other day that I do a lot of 'names by construction' posts for girls, but not really many for boys. So then I ...

Poor Molly . Is she a nickname, or a full given name? I guess the answer is 'both': Molly was originally a regional pronunciation of...

There's a category of names that I love that really doesn't get much play anymore: the -ildas & -eldas. Maybe it's the medie...